The Church fulfils a need.
It’s a repository
for the nation’s soul,
for praise and glory
and patriot zeal.
It’s a bulwark, a base
for true morality,
every good quality.
I’d have said ‘treasure-house’
but these are straitened times.
Today, ‘good Christian’ chimes
best with ‘good citizen’,
if you see what I mean.
As the state keeps its eyes
fixed on an earthly prize,
so the state church prefers
conformity as the theme
for its own officers.
[ . . . ]
Let reason lead the way.
Reason can satisfy
two masters at one time
without rebuke or shame.
But don’t ask every oaf
you meet, ‘Is your soul safe?’
The modern state, young man,
thrives on republican
sentiments: equal rights
and so on; though it hates
real freedom like the plague.
Égalité? Mere blague!
But you, with your quaint views,
discover avenues,
nooks, crannies, that reveal
we’re not equal at all.
The state deals in numbers.
You speak of ‘true members
one with another’.
You’ve caused us some bother.